Tech-schmech

Yes, yes, the Chinese developed gunpowder, but what did we do with it? Goddamned fireworks to entertain the peasants! It was the European metallurgist and guildsman who adapted gunpowder to shoot bullets at motherfuckers. The Han didn't catch on until we were dominated by the Manchus who had no qualms about using cannons.

The Chinese developed the compass, but what did we do with it? Sailed the world to arrogantly show the “foreign barbarians” our inherent superiority, with absolutely no curiosity for other cultures. Someone showed the Japanese how a steam engine worked in the 1850s and in less than a decade, they sailed their own steamship into San Franscisco.

Even in Chinese landscape painting, as wonderful as it is, the mountains and rivers predominate, rarely the ocean with its horizon line. Contrast that to the seascapes of JMW Turner, and vast blue yonder of promise and peril.

During the escalating tension between Chinese society and the colonial presence. The Emperor of China thought these big-nosed, round-eyed Lo Fan were just another foreign barbarian tribe like the Mongols who could be "managed" and kept at bay with wheeling and dealing. When British Ambassador MacCartney entered China with gifts of European technology in 1793, the Qiang-Lung Emperor said China has no use for such gadgets. Instead, this punk-ass bitch should have said: How many tons of silver would your technical professionals like to come teach in our schools?

Maybe open minds and open markets would've allowed the Qing Dynasty to prevent the Opium Wars, the Tai Ping Rebellion and subsequently the events that lead to the Boxer Rebellion and the Imperial Japanese occupation. But no, the Han were too set in our ways. Martial arts have worked for us for five thousands years! No need to worry about motherfuckers with Enfield rifles because we could make our own! (It's the NRA in my blood)